May 3, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern has named its women's tennis team and freshman George Kontos of baseball its Hilton Garden Inn Athletes of the Week.
Northwestern's 11th-ranked women's tennis won its sixth-straight Big Ten Championship after it defeated sixth-seeded Ohio State 4-0 in front of a home crowd on Sunday. The top-seeded Wildcats, who have never lost a tournament match under head coach Claire Pollard, took down ninth-seeded Purdue 4-1 and fourth-seeded Michigan 4-2 en route to the title match.
The Wildcats also completed a perfect home schedule for the season, winning all 15 matches they played in Evanston.
Freshman George Kontos (Lincolnwood, Ill./Niles West) pitched a complete-game shutout in NU's nine-inning series finale at Iowa Sunday afternoon-the first complete game of his career. The Niles West product allowed just six hits, all singles, and threw only 99 pitches in the win. He tied a career high with seven strikeouts, and induced nine groundball outs and nine flyouts in the contest. Kontos left runners stranded in the sixth and seventh innings, pitching his way out of jams both times.
The award is the first of the season and career for Kontos.